What is advance care planning?

Making plans now for the care you want when you have a serious illness is often called “advance care planning.” Advance care planning helps you make your care decisions now and in the future. Planning involves learning about your illness and understanding your choices for treatments and care.

What is involved in the planning process?

Talking with family and health care providers about your care decisions and formally documenting them is very important. This website uses the word “family” to mean people related to us and those we choose to call family.

Legal documents discuss the type of care you want, where care happens, and who provides it so your family knows your choices and understands who you want to speak for you if you are not able to do so.

Care decisions can be about:

Choosing or refusing tests, procedures and medicines, and life-sustaining treatment